OMAHA, Neb. Less than a week after being indicted for allegedly tampering with evidence in a homicide investigation, a crime scene investigator is being sued in federal court by one of the men who was wrongfully charged in the double-murder case.
On Sunday, Nicholas Sampson filed paperwork to add David Kofoed, commander of the Douglas County CSI unit, and the Douglas County Sheriff's Office to a 2007 lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court against the Nebraska State Patrol and the Cass County Sheriff's Office.
The amendment says Kofoed violated Sampson's constitutional rights by planting a speck of blood in a car Sampson had driven.
Sampson spent five months in jail after being wrongfully charged in the deaths of Wayne and Sharmon Stock. The couple were found slain in their Cass County farmhouse on April 17, 2006. Both had been shot in the head at close range with a shotgun.
"Law enforcement involved with the Stock investigation insists that the case against Nick Sampson remains an open case," said Sampson's attorney, Maren Chaloupka. "I find that ironic, given that the only person currently under indictment is one of their own."
Kofoed, 52, was charged Wednesday in Cass County Court with evidence tampering and was indicted a day later on four federal charges, including falsifying records.
His attorney, Steve Lefler, has said Kofoed may have made some mistakes in the case, but they did not rise to the level of criminal misconduct.
A car Sampson had driven was seized during the investigation, and the original samples collected from it on April 19, 2006, showed no link between Sampson and the murders, according to the court documents filed Sunday.
The documents say Kofoed searched the car again a week later and showed another CSI employee a sample of blood taken from under the driver's side dashboard. That employee also swabbed the same area but found no blood.
Kofoed did not file an official report on the blood sample until May 8, 2006. And, according to court documents, he labeled the evidence as being collected that day and wrote the same in the report.
"Kofoed did so with the knowledge that the Cass County Attorney would rely on that evidence to prosecute Sampson," Chaloupka wrote in court documents.
Kofoed said Sunday he hadn't seen the lawsuit and could not comment on it. He referred calls to Lefler. A message left at Lefler's office was not immediately returned.
A message left Sunday at the Douglas County Sheriff's Office also was not immediately returned.
Sampson's original lawsuit said the Nebraska State Patrol and the Cass County Sheriff's Office knowingly violated Sampson's constitutional rights by using an "unreliable, coerced confession" from his cousin, Matthew Livers, to file charges against him.
Sampson is seeking unspecified damages for violation of his civil rights, lost wages, and pain and suffering.
Sampson was charged in April 2006 with two counts of first-degree murder and use of a firearm to commit a felony.
Charges also were filed against Livers, who is Wayne Stock's nephew.
Charges against Sampson were dropped on Oct. 6, 2006, four months after two Wisconsin residents Jessica M. Reid and Gregory D. Fester II were charged in the murders. Livers was cleared in November.
Reid and Fester later pleaded guilty and were each sentenced to two consecutive life sentences in prison.